News: 2017 Lincoln MKZ

Power Package

A twin-turbo 3.0-liter engine puts 400 horsepower in the new MKZ

By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and courtesy of Lincoln Motor Company

Slide into the sumptuous leather seating and crank up the immersive Revel audio system, and you are already bathed in luxury. It’s no surprise you are behind the wheel of the new Lincoln MKZ, but are those real carbon-fiber accents on the dash? Is that a 400-horsepower engine under the hood? Yes. This one has the Driver’s Package and it puts serious performance under the hood of Lincoln’s new sedan.

A fetching luxury sedan, the 2017 Lincoln MKZ is loaded with technology including LED lighting that welcomes you as you walk up to the car and a full retractable glass roof to lets you enjoy some fresh air in style.

While at the LA Auto Show we witnessed the unveiling of this car, and that power number caught our attention.

“Our customers are looking for three attributes in a luxury midsize sedan—technologies that ease their everyday experience, a beautiful design that is crafted with attention to detail, and a vehicle with impressive power that makes it a pleasure to drive,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Lincoln, said. “The new Lincoln MKZ elevates all of these attributes—and many more—to create a compelling entry in this large and highly competitive portion of the luxury market.”

Don’t call it EcoBoost, but the two inlet hoses are a giveaway that the GTDI 3.0-liter is boosted by two turbos. Part of the Driver’s Package in the new MKZ, this engine produces 400 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque if you have 93-octane fuel in the tank. If you opt for the front-wheel-drive 3.0, it produces 350 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. There are also 2.0-liter GTDI and hybrid powertrains available in the MKZ.

It’s not often that we find ourselves covering the luxury car world, but it is here that Ford’s upscale brand often debuts new technology that might one day trickle down to more mainstream vehicles. However, Lincoln is always working to set itself apart from its Blue Oval counterparts, and the 3.0-liter engine under the hood of this car is currently exclusive to the 2017 Lincoln MKZ.

Lincoln isn’t using the EcoBoost branding any longer, but this Gas Turbocharged Direct Injection engine shares that same technology. This version is a grown-up variant of the robust 2.7-liter EcoBoost engine and it reaches square outputs of 400 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque thanks to two turbochargers!

With Active Noise Control in the cabin and a crystal clear Revel audio system that is designed to improve the sound of digital audio files, the interior of the new MKZ should make any drive more pleasant.

Ah, yes, factory twin turbos and direct injection are a happy pairing, and in this application, the potent engine is backed by an all-wheel drive system that offers Dynamic Torque Vectoring like Ford Performance’s hot hatch, the Focus RS. This system can vary the percentage of output to the wheels—from front to back and side to side—in order to put down just the right amount of torque to navigate the car through a corner. Even though this powertrain is in a big luxury sedan, we have a feeling it’s a lot of fun to drive, as it also features continuously controlled damping.